TV show description:
Marta Walraven (Radha Mitchell) is a stay-at-home mom just north of San Francisco and seems to have an idyllic life. She’s devoted to her husband Evan and their three children; Natalie (Erin Moriarty), Gabriel (Sterling Beaumon), and Boris (Jakob Salvati). Behind this perfect façade however, is a more complicated story. Evan supports the family by exporting marijuana.

Marta is no stranger to the world of organized crime. Her father, Andrei Petrov (Rade Serbedzija), and his loyal bodyguard, Luther (Luke Goss), are Bratva — Russian gangsters — in the City by the Bay. It’s a world that Marta and her sister Kat (Jaime Ray Newman) always wanted to escape, though they never quite did.

When Evan is brutally murdered in their driveway, everything changes. Marta’s first concern is to protect her children. Yet when FBI Agent James Ramos (Clifton Collins Jr.) promises Marta justice in exchange for her cooperation, she refuses his help because she can’t go against the Bratva code.

Slowly, the truth about her husband’s murder begins to emerge. Evan’s business partners -– Marta’s scheming brother, Irwin Petrov (Wil Traval), and their best friend, hapless Mike Tomlin (Lee Tergesen) — were involved in the theft of millions of dollars of cocaine from Nicholae Schiller (Goran Visnjic), a handsome and formidable international crime boss.

Evan paid with his life, but as far as Schiller is concerned, his debt is not clear. It falls to Marta, Evan’s widow, to navigate the criminal underworld in order to repay this debt -– in whatever way Schiller sees fit.

Hounded by both the FBI and by Schiller, while also trying to raise three grieving kids alone, Marta discovers a tenacity she never knew she had. As she hunts for the truth about her husband’s death and struggles to keep her children safe, she relies on her resourcefulness, determination and her Bratva DNA like never before.

How far is Marta willing to go in order to beat her adversaries at their own deadly game?

Series Finale

Episode #May 5, 2013 — The Hit
J.J. Johns is the creepy guy who is buying the guns in the deal going down at the docks. Andrei knows that Marta needs someone to blame for Schiller’s death if she kills him. J.J. Johns will do nicely in what will look like a business deal gone wrong. Marta needs Alexandra on her side. The crime lady wants in on Schiller’s turf, but that’s not going to happen if he has anything to say about it. That’s why Alexandra is open to Marta’s plan to take out Schiller. She’ll get the guns, money and Schiller’s business. Of course, it would be very bad for Marta if she fails in her mission.

After spending the night with Kat, James overhears Irwin rambling about the gun deal. This isn’t something he can un-hear. Nevertheless, the gun deal is going forward. Marta needs help from Irwin. After the deal is done, she wants him to disappear. Kat is also helping out during the exchange. It’s her job to keep up normal appearances with the charter business. Luther gives Marta a crash course on how to kill Schiller during the exchange. He tells her to think of all the reasons why this must work. Marta is ready.

Natalie finds the gun Gabriel was planning to use to kill the man who killed their father. She tells him this isn’t something he needs to do. Their grandfather has assured her that he will take care of Schiller. Marta’s mom, Elena, believes she’s getting back together with Andrei now that Felicity is dead. That’s not going to happen. Andrei wants nothing to do with his ex-wife. This has Elena revealing a secret. Her father overheard Marta and Evan talking about how they were going away forever. That’s something Andrei would never let happen.

Marta refuses to believe that her own father would kill her husband. She shows her mother Patrick’s dead body. The boots match those that Boris saw. Marta then realizes they aren’t Patrick’s boots. They’ve been placed on his dead body to make it look like they were his. The boots actually belong to Luther. If Marta goes through with her plan to kill Schiller, her father gets rewarded for killing her husband. What Marta doesn’t know is that Alexandra is teaming up with J.J. Johns to kill her after she guns down Schiller. Thanks to a wiretap, James overhears the entire plan.

Marta finds out about Alexandra’s plan from James. She reveals to the details to Schiller while also telling her about her original plan to kill him. She also lets him know that her father killed her husband. Elsewhere, Luther tells Andrei that he’s leaving him after the exchange. This gives Irwin an opening to convince his dad to trust him for a plan to go to the gun exchange together. This way Andrei can negotiate with Alexandra himself. As for Marta, she’s furious with Luther for killing Evan. She doesn’t want him at the gun exchange.

The deal is going down, though not as everyone expects. J.J. Johns sees Andrei walk into the exchange area. Both men are looking for Schiller, who is actually at Alexandra’s hotel room. Her security detail is nowhere to be found. At the dock, J.J. Johns realizes this is a setup. Andrei shoots him dead. Marta grabs a key from the criminal’s pocket. Another gunman takes aim at her, but Luther takes the bullet. He dies as the FBI raids the place. Back at the hotel, Schiller confronts Alexandra about her plan to kill him. Then she shoots her dead.

Andrei is placed under arrest. Marta confronts her father about all that he’s done. She lets him know that she hopes he burns in hell. Andrei is taken away in the back of a police car. James is commended for taking down the head of the Petrov crime family. The feds got the guns, but not the money. That’s because Marta swiped the storage unit key where the id=”mce_marker”1 million is being kept. She turns it over to Schiller, who lets her know that their business together is done. Marta is free and clear.

Natalie notices that her mom seems happy as she makes pancakes for the family. She’s shocked to learn that Schiller isn’t dead. Marta tells her not to worry about him. That’s not something her daughter is able to accept. Natalie skips out of the house. She waits outside Schiller’s building to pull a gun on him as he exits. Natalie says, “You killed my father.” She takes aim at Schiller unaware that one of his men is standing in the background with a gun pointed at her, too.First aired: May 5, 2013

What do you think? Do you like the Red Widow TV series? Do you think it should have been cancelled or renewed for a second season?